What follows is a personal story ... the Platoon was now split up ... spread all over Australia ... each of us now living with our own personal demons, alone and in our own ways.

When Dixie and I had lunch with Mum & Dad at the South Sydney Leagues Club ... it was the first time that I had ever really connected with my Dad, since my real Mum had died when I was 10 years old. I spent a couple of days in Sydney and then took off to catch up with family and friends. Down to Kiama first to catch up with uncle Bill, Joyce and my Grandmother (Two-Mum). Bill and I had a couple too many at the Kiama Leagues Club. We wrote off the car on the way home and ended up in hospital ... they had to sew my left ear back on.

Discharged from hospital, I headed to Canberra to catch up with some mates and an old girlfriend. My girl had been unfaithfull to me while I was away ... the fact that I jumped anything that moved in Vietnam didn't count. A couple of boozy days in Canberra showed me that I had grown apart from everyone else ... I couldn't relate to their lives and they had no idea what was now driving me.

Headed back to Sydney. Mum and Dad were flying out to New Zealand to visit my brother Lurch (Gordon). I hung around their house in Randwick for a couple of days ... just vegging out and feeling lost. An old girlfriend rung up ... she was engaged to some one else and I didn't want to get involved again ... so into a cab and out to Sydney airport.

I can only imagine what the sheila at the Qantas check in counter thought. I was still carrying scars from the car accident, been pretty heavy on the booze, still in my Jungle Greens (with lots of Vietnam red mud on them), and hadn't washed or shaved for a couple of days ... I must have looked a sight.

"Do you sell tickets to New Zealand, darling?"
"Yes sir ... but they are very expensive." she said looking at me like I had just crawled out from under a rock.
Well I had my back pay and my winnings from the tables in the 'Nam. I produced a wad of notes that could have choked a horse ... "Give me a first class ticket, sweetheart!"

And so I sat up in first class, drinking champagne with all the suits. Toured around New Zealand until my money ran out and headed back to Oz.

Travelled North to Dungog to visit my cousin Tony Hudson out at Myall Creek. It was Show Time and we ended up drinking with The Show people and they invited us to play pontoon (going to take the country hicks to the cleaners). Pontoon ... yeah mate we'll have a go, I've got a bit of an idea how to play pontoon. We barely got out of there with our skins intact but we did get all their money.

Back to Sydney for Christmas and then to Canberra to welcome in 1972.